Another Audrey is magic in 'Tiffany's' homage

Tunisian-born French director Pierre Salvadori is a big fan of vintage Hollywood comedy and his new film, "Priceless," is a "reimagining" (but not exactly a remake) of one of his all-time favorites: the 1961 Audrey Hepburn classic, "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

It sounds like a formula for disaster but the results halfway live up to that ambitious concept. There's no "Moon River" on the soundtrack but Salvadori's homage is a bittersweet, funny, sporadically charming and consistently entertaining love story between two "kept" people.

And if French superstar Audrey Tautou is not exactly up to filling Hepburn's shoes, the camera is still very much in love with her, and her wistful charisma hasn't seemed this potent since she became a European film phenomenon off 2001's "Amelie."

She plays Irene, a gorgeous, conniving woman who's not exactly a prostitute but has moved from one sugar daddy to another in her young life and, as the movie opens, is playing house with a wealthy businessman (Vernon Dobtcheff) old enough to be her grandfather.

One night in a Biarritz resort, in a late-night moment of boredom and sexual frustration, she meets and seduces Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a nebbish of a waiter she mistakes for a tycoon. Naturally, she leaves him in a huff the minute she realizes her error.

But he falls in love with her. And to stay in her league, he becomes the gigolo of a wealthy older woman (Marie-Christine Adam). From here, the movie follows Jean's romantic pursuit of Irene, while both try to keep it a secret from their respective meal tickets.

The comedy mostly works. Salvadori loves these characters like his own children and he has a gift for comic timing, a typical Gallic sense of the absurd and a flair for the wit, sophistication and high-gloss luxury backgrounds of Golden Age Hollywood.

Elmaleh is a rising French comedy star with a Buster Keaton face whose films ("The Valet," "Train of Life") have so far had little success in the U.S. market. He underplays this role with just the right deadpan touch, and it should help him finally gain an audience here.

But it's Tautou's showcase and if her endlessly calculating Irene displays little of the childlike innocence Hepburn gave the role, she brings her own magic to the table. Every move she makes is endearing and she's never looked more stylishly beautiful.